If you live in Melbourne, you’d struggle to find a cafe within a 10km radius of the CBD that isn’t hawking plant milk as much, if not more, than the plain-old moo juice. But German-Cameroonian comedian Aurelia St Clair wants to set the record straight: just because you take your flat white with soy, almond or oat milk doesn’t necessarily mean you’re non-dairy presenting.
So, what does it mean exactly? St Clair uses her show, Non-Dairy Presenting, to highlight what qualities spiritually align you with dairy drinkers or plant milk drinkers, and in doing so, shares razor-sharp insights about our city’s culture. Fitzroy, bisexuals and those who work remotely? Non-dairy presenting. Landlords, St Kilda and heterosexuals? Dairy-presenting. You get the gist.
With crowd work, comedians are really rolling the dice on their crowd’s energy and engagement levels. St Clair cleverly removes that variable by turning all of her instances of crowd work into game show-type exercises that require minimal effort (a raised hand or lowered finger) and allowed the audience to feel like active participants. Oh, and don’t let the smile perpetually plastered on her face lull you into a false sense of security: the knives are out, and if you call Melbourne home, you will feel called out once, if not several times.
You may already be familiar with St Clair from her podcast of the same name, or perhaps from her TikTok where she’s carved out a following for her astute takes on suburban stereotypes. If the latter, you might find yourself a bit underwhelmed; a couple of segments feel like drawn-out versions of social videos you’ve likely already seen - an assessment made of last year’s show, too.
There are a few notable drag points, particularly when she makes a poorly received joke about deaths from Covid and in a weaker segment about ASMR. But overall, St Clair’s delivery is warm, clever and fun, and it’s a stronger show than last year, made even clearer by the abundant laughter throughout the hour and the sold-out crowd.